1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a firmware update system increased in the possibility of execution of automatic firmware update processing.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image processing apparatus equipped with a plurality of functions, such as a digital multifunction peripheral, is composed of a plurality of components, such as a main controller, a printer engine for performing image formation, and a facsimile machine, and has respective associated firmware components installed in the components.
Some of such image processing apparatus have a function for automatically performing update processing of the firmware components thereof. To execute the automatic update processing, there is proposed a method in which an image processing apparatus connects to an update server via a network, and updates the firmware thereof to the latest firmware from the update server (see e.g. Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2009-187456). This method has large benefits for both general users of image processing apparatuses and service technicians of sales companies, and has come to be widely used.
According to the method proposed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2009-187456, version information of the plurality of firmware components of an image processing apparatus is transmitted to a server, and it is determined whether or not there is any firmware component of a new version, whereby firmware update is efficiently executed.
As described above, the image processing apparatus is composed of a plurality of components having respective associated firmware components installed therein, and the firmware components operate in cooperation with each other, to thereby realize a copy function, a print function, and a FAX function, as a system.
Therefore, to guarantee correct operations of the image processing apparatus, the firmware components are required to have respective versions in a correct combination. To this end, a method is employed in which a version management list describing a combination of versions of all the firmware components, which guarantees the proper operation of the image processing apparatus, is used to perform easy and convenient firmware management of the whole image processing apparatus.
In this method, the version management list is stored in a storage device of the image processing apparatus, and contents of the list are supposed to match version information of all the firmware components actually installed in the image processing apparatus. For example, in the initial state of the image processing apparatus immediately after shipment from its manufacturer, as a matter of fact, the contents of the list and the version information match each other.
When updating firmware components, the manufacturer of the image processing apparatus creates new firmware components as well as a new version management list describing all versions of the firmware components including the versions of the new firmware components, and registers the new version management list in the update server. Note that each version management list includes description of a version number of the version management list itself.
The update server acquires a version number of the version management list of the image processing apparatus for which update processing is to be performed, selects, based on the acquired version number, a version number of a version management list based on which the update processing is to be performed next, and executes the update processing of firmware components to be updated, which are determined based on the version management lists having the respective version numbers.
As described above, in the update processing of the image processing apparatus composed of a plurality of components having respective associated firmware components installed therein, it is unnecessary for a user to check the versions of all the firmware components each time, whereby it is possible to maintain the latest and correct combination of firmware components.
In the management method using the version management list that represents a combination of a plurality of firmware components, when a component having a firmware component installed therein is replaced, there can occur a state where the versions of the version management list in the image processing apparatus and the versions of the firmware components actually installed in the same are different.
In this case, a firmware management module of the image processing apparatus cannot determine whether or not versions of the respective firmware components are in a correct combination that guarantees the proper operation of the image processing apparatus.
For example, a digital multifunction peripheral or a like image processing apparatus stores various kinds of data including user data, image processing settings, device control adjustment values, and so forth.
If the firmware components are forcibly updated from the state where it is impossible to determine whether or not versions of the respective firmware components are in a correct combination, there is a fear that data is lost in accordance with update of the firmware.
Further, depending on details of update of the firmware components, unless the firmware update is performed by updating the firmware to intermediate versions, the system per se sometimes becomes incapable of being started up e.g. due to a change in the allocation of a system memory area.
To avoid such a problem, in a case where the versions of firmware components indicated in the version management list of the image processing apparatus and the versions of installed firmware components do not match each other, the firmware management module of the image processing apparatus determines that the versions of the firmware components are not in a proper combination, and even if execution of update processing is attempted, the firmware management module stops the update processing.
Actually, however, it sometimes occurs that a version management list including the version of a firmware component installed in a new component has already been issued and the combination of the versions of the firmware components of the image processing apparatus subjected to the component replacement is a normal combination.
Therefore, in spite of the fact that update processing can be executed, the update processing is sometimes stopped. In this case, it is required to dispatch a service technician to a customer's site to have him manually rewrite the version of the firmware component of the replaced component in the version management list, to thereby cause the respective versions of the firmware components in the version management list to match the respective versions of the firmware components installed in the components to match each other.